The Gmail chat features is up, operational, and ready to go. Has anyone used it yet?
Visit the help sections here at Google to learn more. This is the link to click.
I used it a little bit with my oldest son who lives in Utah. He works as a software tester for a game company, so is on the computer all day.
It works quite well, as far as I can see. I am not really into using any I'm or chat all that much, as I prefer to think through what I am writing and try to be as clear as I can be.
The Google Gmail chat is actually just Google Talk built into the web page. If you use Google Talk, all your contacts within gmail and the GT messenger will be combine and you will have access to both. I like the feature, but I already use Google Talk anyway. The really neat function of this is that if you have a firewall at work that will not allow messengers, then the Gmail web page still allows you to chat with out installing anything.